The Hematopoietic Stem Cell Core Facility serves as a resource for procurement and processing of human hematopoietic cells derived from a variety of sources, and phenotypic, and for the functional characterization of these cells for the members of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. The core objectives are 1) to distribute human blood, umbilical cord blood and bone marrow cells to investigators; 2) to perform standard assays of hematopoiesis such as enumeration of Colony-Forming Units (CFU), or Burst-Forming Units (BFU) with the Hematopoietic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplant program; 3) to perform hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell analysis for evaluation of reconstitution after transplantation. In this capacity, the facility serves as a quality control laboratory for clinical trials. The facility provides a centralized distribution of normal or disease-involved blood and bone marrow, and performs cost effective and efficient hematopoietic cell isolation and purification for distribution to laboratories for a variety of biochemical, molecular, or biological assays. The facility has Internal Review Board (IRB) approval to collect and distribute human cells from a variety of sources, and is a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-registered laboratory for stem cell assays with quality assurance procedures in place and tested specialized reagents on-site to allow clinical reporting. The facility has a standing advisory board of 3 users of the facility who are charged with reviewing the core's activities and providing ideas for development of new services. The facility is located on the second floor of the Wolstein Research Building in Cancer Center space, and occupies approximately 400 sq. ft. The facility is directed by Dr. Solchaga; Dr. Gerson, who originally developed it in 1989, is the Medical Advisor. The facility services are used by an average of 15-20 cancer investigators per year. The Hematopoietic Stem Cell Core Facility also maintains cytokine stocks of both human and mouse origin, and VarioMACS columns and antibody cocktails for separation of specific subpopulations of blood and bone marrow cells.